Brittany Murphy

Actor

Born: 10 November 1977

Died: 20 December 2009 (heart failure)

Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia

Best known as: Eminem's girlfriend in the 2002 film 8 Mile

Actress Brittany Murphy made a specialty of playing rough-around-the-edges chums and lovers in Hollywood films. After guest-starring roles in TV series like Blossom and Party of Five, Brittany Murphy made her feature film debut in Clueless (1995) as Tai, the low-rent ugly duckling befriended by Alicia Silverstone's sleek Cher. Murphy won good reviews as Daisy, Winona Ryder's suicidal fellow mental patient in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She followed that with supporting roles in a string of "chick flicks" including Sidewalks of New York (2001) and Riding In Cars With Boys (2002, with Drew Barrymore). Brittany Murphy gradually remade herself from dowdy brunette to slim and sultry blonde: she played Eminem's fame-hungry girlfriend in 8 Mile, the 2002 film inspired by the rapper's life, the waitress Shellie in the violent comic book drama Sin City (2005, with Bruce Willis) and the noodle-master-in-training of The Ramen Girl (2008). She also provided the voice of Luanne in the long-running animated series King of the Hill. Brittany Murphy died suddenly of a heart attack in her Los Angeles home in 2009, at age 32. The LA County Coroner later ruled that the death was an accident caused by pneumonia, iron deficiency, and "multiple drug intoxication." The drugs were a variety of legal prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Extra credit: Brittany Murphy married screenwriter Simon Monjack in May 2007. Eerily, five months after her death, on 23 May 2010, he died in the same house of similar causes: pneumonia and anemia, and also with prescription drugs in his bloodstream... Brittany Murphy had been engaged to film crew electrician Joe Macaluso in December of 2005; they had split in August of 2006. She had previously been engaged to Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of the talent management company The Firm... She provided vocals on Paul Oakenfold's single Faster Kill Pussycat, a dance club hit in 2006.